Position Summary:

The Clinical Therapist will be responsible for clinical services and case management for children and families served by the Children’s Center of Hamden. In this position the Clinical Therapist will be responsible for providing mental health treatment and marketing the program to referral sources. The Clinical Therapist will be the liaison to outside agencies and personnel; DCF, hospitals, insurance/managed care, the legal system, boards of education, private consultants, etc. The therapist is responsible for engaging youth and families and will demonstrate respect for various cultures. The therapist will be directly accountable to the Director.

Accountable and responsible for the following results:

• Provide effective individual, group, and family therapy.
• Maintain caseload set by Director.
• Develop and maintain ongoing communication with referral sources including programs at The Children’s Center of Hamden, community providers, DCF, probation, schools, and hospitals.
• Arranges for psychiatric, psychological, and other specialized testing and evaluation.
• Coordinate and contribute to diagnostic, case review and provider conferences.
• Maintain regular contact with, and attend and contribute to, all decision-making conferences involving outside agencies, i.e., public school systems, DCF, juvenile courts, community resources and alternative placement.
• Maintain regular contact with internal members of the treatment team regarding clinical issues, and interdepartmentally regarding changes in status.
• Ensure that legal rights of child are protected, and incidents of abuse or neglect are reported to DCF.
• Review intake material and provide evaluations as assigned.
• Maintain records for admissions, case reviews, progress reports and discharge summaries.
• Ensure documentation is completed in expected time frame.
• Facilitate the Master Treatment Plan process with clients and update as required.
• Demonstrates sensitivity and awareness regarding cultural diversity as it relates to the client population.
• Participates in providing Quality Assurance statistics and Client Outcome Measures.
• Provides comprehensive clinical assessments and interventions per Agency policy including issues of cultural diversity.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Master's in social work, Marriage and Family Therapy or related field with license eligibility (I.e. LMSW, LPC-A, LMFT-A).
• Ability to engage clients in a therapeutic relationship in individual, family, and group modalities of treatment.
• Ability to design and implement therapeutic interventions to promote positive change.
• Knowledge of child development.
• Ability to work well independently within a treatment team philosophy.
• Good verbal and written communication skills.
• Training in mental health treatment, child psychopathology and developmental psychology.